In communication systems it is common for users to subscribe to services that show status information of other users. For example, in many so-called instant messaging (IM) applications one user may add another user to their personal contact list, and receive status updates from an instant messaging server relating to the users in their personal contact list. In this way, one user may see when other users in their contact list are connected to the network, are busy, are available, and so on.
Currently, however, each user has to manage their own individual contacts list, and has to individually subscribe to receive status updates of users in their contact lists.